User:Scberry

I am a writer, editor, and musician living in the Northwestern United States. So far, I've been creating and updating articles for independent music artists, session musicians, bluegrass musicians, jazz musicians, and overlooked fiction authors.

I am a relative newcomer, and I have been known to exhibit WikiGnome behavior. I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions. Thank you.

Ongoing goals
A primary goal of mine is to help make information about music artists and fiction authors available in Wikipedia.

In particular, I am interested in collecting discographic and bibliographic material, and keeping this information current and accurate.

In the past, I have benefitted from Wikipedia articles, and I've been frustrated when information was not available or poorly-sourced.

Articles I've created

 * list

Articles I've improved in some way

 * list

Articles I am developing

 * on hold
 * User:Scberry/Mark Casstevens
 * User:Scberry/Alison Prestwood
 * User:Scberry/Paul Leim
 * User:Scberry/Jelly Roll Johnson
 * User:Scberry/Russ Pahl
 * User:Scberry/R.B. Morris
 * User:Scberry/Tim Lauer

Article possibilities

 * list

Articles that need review

 * list

Some opinions
I use this section as a soapbox for my Wikipedia ideas and opinions.

Eliminate glorious wonderful hyperbole
Avoid the temptation to praise the subject of your article, unless quoting from someone else (and even then, show restraint). If the subject of your article needs that kind of hype, perhaps there shouldn't be an article about your subject. Journalists and reviewers pad their text with descriptives, but let's remember that our audience wants clear information.

The curse of red links
Some have talked about how a sea of blue links distracts the reader, but certainly red links are even more distracting. It is better for the editor to maintain a list of pages that should be created than to link to an imaginary page.

How readers use Wikipedia
Though we author's write Wikipedia articles to make sense when read end-to-end, it is important to remember that much of the time, readers will consult articles to locate specific pieces of information.

We can assist them by employing subsections with meaningful titles, within larger sections, and further divide subsections into paragraphs. We can write sentences that make sense when read individually.

Overlinking
In content intended to be read beginning-to-end, I think it is only necessary to link the first occurrence of a word or phrase.

But in lists (such as discographies) in which readers are likely to search for and read one or several list items, I believe it is useful to provide links on the first occurrence of the word or phrase in each line item. This is a courtesy for the reader.

I mention this because I see "link wars'' on some pages, with editors removing and adding links to the same content.

New Pages
I will consider creating a new page for obvious reasons, such as a wealth of available material. But I also look for frequency of citations on other pages, even if there is relatively little material available on the subject. I think Wikipedia is just as much about linking content as it is about the content itself.

Editing Wikipedia using a mobile device
Being physically handicapped, I primarily edit Wikipedia pages using a Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone. This works well for me because I am content-focused and I am comfortable with the wiki markup language.

Here are some lessons I've learned when editing Wikipedia content using a mobile device:

Save frequently
Be observant as you enter, delete, or modify content, and save after making only a few changes. An undo function is often not available, so work should be thoroughly reviewed before saving.

Web content display differences
Display of content on a mobile device varies from its display on a computer monitor, especially layout of images. It is helpful (though not critical) to view your work on several different displays (desktop and tablet), especially if creating a new page or linking to images.

Mobile device URLs
Some websites use separate URL addresses for mobile device display. Example: http//:something.com might be automatically converted to: http//:m.something.com Mobile URLs should be replaced with desktop URLs when citing sources or creating links. It may not be sufficient to remove the extra "m." from a mobile URL, so test the converted URL before saving an edit.

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) errors
When performing a Google search, Google may direct your browser to a copy stored on their servers in order to speed up display of the content on mobile devices.

The address of a Google AMP page encapsulates the URL in a wrapper that incorporates the /amp tag, such as in the following example:

https://www.google.com/amp/www.domain.com/page.html/amp

But if this AMP address is copied and pasted into a Wikipedia link or citation, an error is generated when attempting to save.

Instead, tap the icon to the right of the URL displayed below the address bar to display the true site, and use that URL. Or, strip the "/amp" wrapper from the AMP URL before using it in a citation or link.

Citating and Referencing Sources

 * Citing sources
 * Referencing for beginners
 * Non-free content
 * Non-free use rationale guideline

Help

 * Cheatsheet
 * Bots
 * Disambiguation pages with links
 * How to edit
 * HTML in wikitext
 * Magic words
 * Scripts
 * Userspace draft
 * Categorization

How To Guides

 * How to make a redirect
 * How to find an image
 * free image search tool
 * How to move a page
 * How to use your user space
 * Frequently used templates & style-guide for album articles
 * The Wikipedia Library

Reference lists

 * Requested Article List
 * Wikipedia backlog

Citations in references

 * Sources for music album ik formation
 * List of online music databases

Bluegrass resources

 * List of bluegrass musicians
 * List of bluegrass bands
 * Bluegrass topics

Style & Format

 * Wikipedia Manual of Style
 * Style Guide for Lists of works
 * Musician article guidelines
 * Album style guide
 * Discography style guide (unofficial)
 * Sideman (thanks to Alan W for pointing this out)
 * Remember the reader

Templates

 * Templates
 * Musical artist infobox template
 * Hatnotes
 * Discography infobox template
 * Track list
 * Record label
 * Music templates
 * n/a template

More online resources

 * Want to go at your own pace? Self guided introduction
 * N.B. There is an IRC channel if online participants need help:
 * IRC/wikipedia-en-help

Music reference guides

 * British Hit Singles - 8th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-941-2
 * British Hit Singles - 14th Edition - ISBN 0-85156-156-X
 * British Hit Singles - 16th Edition - ISBN 085112-190-X
 * British Hit Singles & Albums - 19th Edition - ISBN 1-904994-10-5
 * The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 3rd Edition - ISBN 0-85112-888-2
 * The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums - 7th Edition - ISBN 0-85112-619-7
 * Guinness Rockopedia - ISBN 0-85112-072-5
 * The Book of Golden Discs - 2nd Edition - ISBN 0-214-20512-6
 * The Great Rock Discography - 5th Edition - ISBN 1-84195-017-3
 * The Blues - From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray - ISBN 1-85868-255-X
 * The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits - ISBN 0-85112-250-7
 * The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music - ISBN 1-904041-96-5
 * NME Rock 'N' Roll Years - CN 5585
 * Perfecting Sound Forever : The Story of Recorded Music - Greg Milner - ISBN 978-1-84708-140-7

Music credits citations

 * As listed in liner notes.


 * Adapted from AllMusic: